Pittsburgh -- In an article that ran in Capitolwire late yesterday, Jon Delano, political editor at KDKA-TV, said something that the Santorum campaign and media outlets have been saying for some time: "What [the public] care[s] about is information and whether the candidate is perceived to be avoiding tough questioning and stating positions on the issues." (Christopher Lilienthal, "Santorum campaign keeps pressure on Casey to debate," Capitolwire, July 13, 2006)

Vince Galko, campaign manager for Santorum 2006, said, "I wonder if Bobby Casey will heed Jon Delano's words. Casey's been avoiding the issues and declining to comment on the tough issues since entering the race for the U.S. Senate. Casey claims he's providing Pennsylvanians with his positions, but if he was really committed to sharing his views, he would agree to a series of debates, especially when you consider the hours that Senators debate on the floor of the Senate on just one issue. The voters of our Commonwealth deserve to hear detailed positions from both candidates. Perhaps now, Casey Jr. will take Jon Delano's advice, alter his campaign strategy, start talking about the issues in detail and agree to debate Rick Santorum." [emphasis added]

And this is what Capitalwire says about this whole thing:

In a story about debate challenges issued by Sen. Rick Santorum to Democratic challenger Bob Casey Jr., Pittsburgh political analyst Jon Delano told Capitolwire: "Nobody cares whether Casey avoids Santorum. The question is whether Casey is avoiding the public and avoiding tough questioning by the media on behalf of the public.

“I think every candidate running behind wants a lot of debates. That’s classic Politics 101. But the public really doesn’t care about the debates. What they care about is information and whether the candidate is perceived to be avoiding tough questioning and stating positions on the issues.”

The Santorum release, issued Friday, quotes Delano as telling Capitolwire: "What [the public] care[s] about is information and whether the candidate is perceived to be avoiding tough questioning and stating positions on the issues."

So what's the big deal? Well, Santorum campaign manager Vince Galko goes on to say if Casey “was really committed to sharing his views, he would agree to a series of debates, especially when you consider the hours that senators debate on the floor of the Senate on just one issue. The voters of our commonwealth deserve to hear detailed positions from both candidates. Perhaps now, Casey Jr. will take Jon Delano's advice, alter his campaign strategy, start talking about the issues in detail, and agree to debate Rick Santorum."

But didn't Delano say few people care about debates? The Santorum campaign was a little misleading by omitting the key parts of the Delano quote in its release and then offering its own version of what Delano was saying. [emphasis added]

A little misleading? By omitting an entire sentence about debates, they changed the complete tone of Delano's remarks. It was spin of a pretty high order. I wonder what Jon Delano thinks of all this.

But it's pretty much par for the course for the campaign that out right lied about a previous KDKA report. If you need a refresher course on Rick Santorum's interaction with reality, read this.